This invention relates to extrusion dies, and, more particularly, to extrusion dies for extruding multi-passageway tubular members in such a manner as to afford ports or passageways through the partition walls separating the adjacent longitudinally extending passageways in the tubular member.
A primary object of the present invention is to afford a novel extrusion die.
Multi-passageway tubular members have been heretofore known in the art, being shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,202,212, issued Aug. 24, 1965 to Richard W. Kritzer, 3,746,086, issued July 17, 1973 to Stephen F. Pasternak, and 3,781,959, issued Jan. 1, 1974 to Joseph M. O'Connor, and the like. Such tubular members have many uses, such as, for example, as heat exchangers in the nuclear industry field, the power industry field, the cryogenic industry field and the petro-chemical industry field, and the like. In many instances, in such fields, the same amount of liquid coolant is fed into each of the passageways of the tubular member from a compressor, and the material to be cooled, such as, for example, air, gas or liquid flows transversely across the exterior of the tubular member from one passageway to the other. In such instances, it has been found that, oftentimes, only the coolant in the first passageway or the first few passageways in the direction of flow of the material being cooled, is completely evaporated, with the coolant in the other passageways, progressively across the tubular member, having an increasing amount of coolant remaining therein in liquid form. Inasmuch as, normally, the compressor to which the return line from the tubular member is connected does not properly operate when liquid, rather than gas, is fed thereinto, accumulators, and the like, have commonly been incorporated in such return lines to boil off the liquid and insure that it has been converted to gas before the coolant is fed back into the compressor.
Multi-passageway tubular members having interconnections between the passageways thereof, for the purpose of endeavoring to alleviate the aforementioned problem of having liquid remaining in part of the longitudinal passageways in the tubular member, when the coolant is fed back into the return line to a compressor, have been heretofore known in the art, being shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,722, issued Jan. 18, 1966 to Richard W. Kritzer. However, insofar as is known, whenever one-piece, multi-passageway tubular members, having internal inter-connections between adjacent passageways, have been heretofore afforded, the inter-connections have been formed by cutting or gouging an opening in the partition wall after the tubular member has been formed. It is an important object of the present invention to afford improvements over the manner in which such multi-passageway tuublar members, having interconnections between the adjacent passageways thereof, have been formed.
Another object of the present invention is to enable multi-passageway tubular members, having internal inter-connections between adjacent passageways, to be extruded in a novel and expeditious manner whereby the inter-connections between the adjacent passageways are formed during the extrusion process.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel method of forming multi-passageway tubular members having internal inter-connections between adjacent passageways.
A further object of the present invention is to afford a novel extrusion die for extruding multi-passageway tubular members, wherein internal inter-connections between adjacent passageways may be formed during the extruding process.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel extrusion die of the aforementioned type which is practical and efficient in operation, and which may be readily and economically produced commercially.
Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which, by way of illustration, show a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof and what I now consider to be the best mode in which I have contemplated applying these principles. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.